Tag: KSW

On Saturday night at KSW 28, Angolan lightweight Helson Henriquez nearly pulled off what MiddleEasy described as a “Showtime Shogun Punch.” You know, it’s that thing where you grab the fence and launch yourself into the air to land a diving punch into your opponent’s guard? And he would have gotten away with it too, if not for that meddling Anzor Azhiev (aka, the Polish dude on the mat), who landed a perfectly timed upkick to Henriquez’s shoulder, sending him into a tailspin. Henriquez went on to lose the fight by unanimous decision. Nevertheless, this remains the greatest “Yeah, But If That Thing Landed!” moment of 2014.

(Looks like he is training hard for…oh god that was awful. I’ll show myself out now. -SF)

Alright, so we’re being dicks in calling these fights “freakshows,” yes. Only one of them included a former World’s Strongest Man champion swinging his ham hocks around wildly, after all – the other had a legit top Polish prospect against a very good kick boxer – and both of them included guys with the guts to glove up and man-up.

UFC veteran and certified internet troll nut bag Sean McCorkle appears to wilt under Pudzi’s initial strong-man onslaught before getting on top and finishing with a Kimura shoulder lock.

For a few moments in the bout between Mamed Khalidov and Melvin Manoef, the two tried kicking the crap out of each other. Then, Mamed thought better of exchanging with the K-1 veteran and promptly guillotine choked Melly-Mel.

Check out both vids after the jump. Don’t pretend you have something better to do.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Potato Nation, the creme de la creme of freak show MMA fights has just been booked. No, we’re not talking about Canseco vs. O’Neal or Zimmer vs. Martinez II (the latter of which is as elusive as the great white buffalo). We’re talking about McCorkle vs. Pudzianowski, the SHW showdown years in the making that has finally become a reality. Now, you might be asking yourself, “Danga, how is this the aforementioned pinnacle of freak show fights, you good for nothing piece of hyperbolic human garbage?” Well first ask yourself the three prerequisite questions necessary to determine any great freak show fight, you cold-hearted son of a bitch.

We’re not sure if Mamed Khalidov has been workshopping any nickname ideas, but as the unofficial authorities on this subject, we’d like to suggest “The Compactor.” Because for the past two or so years, Khalidov has been making his living collecting the UFC’s trash and shredding them into bite-sized pieces before disposing of them like yesterday’s leftovers. In this regard, his victory over TUF 3 winner Kendall Grove was a success, as he secured a rarely seen achilles lock to put Grove away inside the distance. But in a way, the win was one of Khalidov’s less impressive performances in recent memory. I mean, he even let Grove get to the second round for Chrissakes, and considering UFC veterans like Rodney Wallace, James “WHY ME?!” Irvin, Matt Lindland, and Jesse Taylor couldn’t make it out of the second minute, it really makes you wonder just why Khalidov decided to dick around for as long as he did.

We kid, we kid. In his last six fights, Khalidov has scored two victories by knockout, one by armbar, one by kneebar, one by guillotine, and one by the aforementioned Achilles lock. The man is as close to a human Swiss army knife as you will ever find, and once the UFC offers him a contract worth more than the paper it’s printed on, expect to see him making waves stateside.

Unfortunately, the video of his fight with Grove in unembeddable, so you’ll have to go here to check it out.

After the jump: Videos of the night’s co-main event — which pitted Rodney Wallace against Michael Materla for the KSW middleweight title — and the scrap between UFC veterans Matt Horwich and Terry Martin.

Sometimes, there’s no shame in being a can crusher. As much as we love watching close fights between our sport’s top fighters, some of our sport’s most entertaining finishes came to fruition because a fighter of reasonable competence was locked in the cage with an utterly hopeless ham-n-egger. There’s nothing wrong with pounding the bejesus out of a hapless jobber every once in a while, which is exactly what Mariusz Pudzianowski, Jan Blachowicz and Dusan Panajotovic did yesterday. Fortunately for us, they filmed it for posterity as well.

At thirty-five years old, “can crusher” is probably the ceiling for five-time World’s Strongest Man Mariusz Pudzianowski’s MMA career. The odds of him ending up in the big leagues outside of his home country are pretty slim- which is perfect, because he seems more than content to smash freaks and nobodies in front of enthusiastic Polish fans. At yesterday’s KSW 20, Pudzianowski faced 4-1 Greek American prospect Christos Piliafas. All of Piliafas’ fights have ended by TKO- four of which in the first round. A technical grappling clinic this would not be, as Pudzianowski scored takedowns and eventually punched out Piliafas 3:48 seconds into round one. Unfortunately, videos of this scrap have quickly been taken off of YouTube. We know, we’re just as heartbroken as you are.

But as a consolation prize, we’re going to offer you KSW Light Heavyweight Champion Jan Blachowicz’s successful title defense against Houston Alexander from the same card. A win over Alexander may not mean too much anymore, yet Blachowicz never appeared in trouble throughout the fight. Unfortunately, save for an armbar at the end of round one and a triangle choke at the end of round two, neither did Alexander. Okay, so it’s a pretty lousy consolation prize. Whaddayagonnado?

If you’ve even been a semi-regular reader of this site over the past few months, then you are probably familiar with our nuthuggery when it comes to Polish powerhouse Mamed Khalidov. With a record that currently stands at 25-4, Khalidov has made a name for himself as of late by quickly and violently decimating any challenge placed before him under the KSW banner. His diet has consisted mainly of ex-UFC talent including James Irvin, Jesse Taylor, Jorge Santiago, and Matt Lindland, and he has not lost a fight since March of 2010 (in a rematch with Santiago). In those fights, Khalidov has proven to be as dynamic and powerful a striker as he is a lethal submission savant, and with the Biblical-scale plague of injuries currently sweeping through the UFC’s roster, now seems like a better time than any for Khalidov to test himself in the sport’s highest promotion, don’t you think?

Well, even though it is being reported that Khalidov has in fact been offered a contract by Dana & Co, the jury is still out on whether or not we’ll actually be seeing him stateside anytime soon. The reason, as it always is, boils down to simple dollars and cents. Or lack thereof.

According to Filho, who is reportedly in debt to a few people in Brazil, reportedly due to his massive addiction to rohypnol and the fact that he missed out on the Zuffa drug plan by a couple years, he is planning on walking away from the sport because he received death threats over his drug debts.

“I’m choosing retirement, man… I may fight in November (in Poland) because I already signed the contract. after that I will retire. I don’t want this anymore. I’m kind of disappointed with this stuff, fighting and not getting paid. I don’t want people comforting me, I just want what is mine. That’s the third time I fight and not get paid. I was the threatened of death by people I owe here in Niteroi.”

Now, I’ve never done roofies, at least not to my knowledge, but maybe someone with knowledge on the subject could correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m thinking his lack of correlative logic is a direct result of his drug use. I mean, if I were in huge debt and the only moneymaking skill I had fighting, I would likely not retire. But that’s just me.

(Seven pounds over, and dropping his shorts just in case. Positivity’s a great thing, James, but sometimes you have to meet it halfway. Props: mmanewspl)

Just two weeks after it was announced that he blew a steroid test back in California, cursed UFC veteran James Irvin was back in action last night in the main event of KSW 15 in Warsaw. And if you thought this would a redemptive performance for the Sandman, then buddy, you don’t know James Irvin. The bout was held at a catchweight after Irvin came in juuuuuust a bit heavy for his scheduled middleweight title fight against Mamed Khalidov. His initial weigh-in tipped the scales at 197 pounds — 12 over the limit — but after four hours in the sauna, Irvin managed to get down to 192, and the match went on at a catchweight — with the middleweight belt still on the line, for some reason.

Anyway, the numbers don’t really matter. Khalidov opened the bout with a spinning back kick (as he tends to do), then dropped to his back when it didn’t connect. Irvin dived on for some ground-and-pound, and was immediately caught in an armbar. The fight was over in 33 seconds. On the bright side, Irvin didn’t leave the fight badly injured, as we assumed he would. Hopefully that’s the last time that Irvin accepts a fight at middleweight…on short notice…overseas…against a really tough opponent…when he has a drug suspension hanging over his head.

In the spirit of covering realnews this weekend, we kind of overlooked some fights that are rumored to be going down at KSW 15 in Warsaw, Poland on March 19. I’m sure you’ll get over it. To the surprise of absolutely no one, Mariusz Pudzianowski is rumored to be on this one. According to a report on Five Ounces of Pain, his opponent will be heavy handed British journeyman James Thompson. Fight of the year candidate? Probably not. Decent slugfest? Sure.

More notable than that, though, is that James Irvin is also rumored to be involved with this card. You may remember that James Irvin was recently pulled from a Shark Fights card due to a suspension from the CSAC over a positive steroid test. Because Poland does not have an athletic commission, Irvin is free to fight there. However, he is still subject to repercussions back in America.